Twitter lets users buy via hashtags

 

Gallery

By Dave Stevenson

Posted on 12 Feb 2013 at 12:15

Twitter has joined forces with credit card company American Express to allow tweeters to use the micro-blogging service to buy products and gift cards.

Currently open to US cardholders, the offer requires users to sync their credit cards with their Twitter accounts.

That done, users will tweet a hashtag specific to the offer they want to take up, then await a response from American Express containing a confirmation hashtag. The purchase is completed when the user sends a second tweet also containing the confirmation hashtag.

The two companies are attempting to sweeten the deal with a range of discounts from noon on the 13 February until 3 March, including temptations such as a $25 Amazon.com gift card for $15 (around £16 and £10 respectively) and an Xbox 360 with three months’ of premium subscription service Xbox Gold for $179 (roughly £114).

The ability to sync a credit card with Twitter has been done before. In March 2012 American Express allowed users to unlock various discounts in return for tweeting related hashtags. The discounts were then automatically applied when the purchase was completed.